Studio Triggers - Hahnel Combi / Pocket Wizard X

So I was looking at upgrading my triggers as I'm good for the speedlights but not for my new studio strobes.

They came with Hahnel TF Combi triggers for Canon but the receiver doesn't have the lead to plug into the strobe.

Does anyone know, as the sender that sits in the hotshoe is Canon dedicated so the pins are there for Canon TTL, is that safe to use on the Pentax? Will the dedicated pins damage the camera?

Asking as if it's best I'll sell them on before buying the lead.

Downside is the only trigger I can see that's suitable for Pentax and studio strobes is the Pocket Wizard X and they're not that cheap!

Hi Gareth,

I don't k now if this helps you or not, but I recently used a Nikon speedlight ( SB600 I think ) on my Pentax K1 hotshoe ( only cos I didn't own a flashgun ) for a badger shoot, I was shooting in manual and it worked perfectly.

Per my Commlite triggers manual:

"It is possible to use the H-430 Canon type as a Nikon type and vice versa if needed, but some functionality may be lost (such as TTL pass thru and flash wakeup)."

That said I've used my Nikon Commlite transceiver on Pentax, but I've never used my Canon one on Pentax (only on a flash meter).

Do some Google'ing and you see that TTL info to the flash and flash wakeup are sent via these extra pins, doubt you'll use or need these features.

Nikon and Pentax pin-outs are same/similar (diameter of pins vary, so maybe not 100% of cases) but uses of pins are different.

Canon and Pentax (and hence Nikon) pin-outs are different, and you'll probably find extra pins will miss unless they are large ones.

Thanks both, I may just air on the side of caution as I don't want to fry my camera and sell them on.

Anyone know a cheaper alternative to Pocket Wizards ?!

Hi Gareth, for my studio strobes, I use cheap Chinese triggers purchased from linkdelight, Google them, I've had no problems in 8 plus years of really good use. I pay about £10 per trigger / receiver set and have several of us shoot together as long as we don't pinch each others light 😆

I will confirm what Chris8 says. I use the cheap. Under a tenner sender & reciever to fire my Bowens studio strobes,,, The strobes are manual. Ive had no problems in 3 years. You do have to purchase a seperate sync cable for the strobe but these also are pennies... Pocket wizards couldnt work any better..

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Channel-Wireless-Speedlite-Receiver-Transmitter/dp/B00K...

It's not something I've done, but I thought you had Cactus V6 transceivers Gareth? I think they have a sync port, so with the right cable you may be able to place or attach the V6 near the strobe .... ?

You won't get remote power control that way however, just simple triggering. But you'd be able to use the group controls to turn individual lights on and off from the camera.

How many lights are you needing to trigger?

If you use the ones supplied by Link Delight, they come supplied with the cable these are the ones I've had years of good use from

Thanks all, I'll relook at the Chinese triggers.

Nigel no, I didn't buy the Cactus triggers, I bought the Yongnuo 560VI flash and 560Tx wireless controller.

I don't need to be able to adjust the power, just trigger them, they're studio strobes and all studio work is done in full manual. I've got 3 strobes, 2 x 300w units and a monster 600w unit so it'll be a maximum of 3 heads depending on the lighting set up.

Gareth I have some expensive trigger and when they let me down I bought the cheep Chinese one's .

to tell you the truth the Chinese one work just as well, They may not have the range of the expensive one's but for a studio they work well.

I had a studio were in winter used to suffer with damp, hence the trouble with flash heads not firing all the time.

I hope this helps
Pink

Thanks James

That link you gave in the other thread had these triggers which look interesting:

http://viewfinderphotography.co.uk/ac-4ch-xb-series-radio-wireless-trigger-kit/

Interesting as they plug into the strobe power so no batteries to worry about apart from the sender in the camera!

I'm pleased I could help
James

Hi Gareth,

These might save you a Tenner a set ?

Thanks Chris. I'm on my phone right now and it doesn't want to open that link so I'll take a look when in front of a computer later on

Back to original problem: Do you have an old hot shoe adapter, the type used to add a PC connector to a camera or a 2nd hot shoe, back in the day, when it would only have the central flash connector?

If so put that between camera hot shoe and trigger, or between PC connector and trigger, and you'll know that only the centre connector is being used.

As to the adapter cables that were missing, 3.5mm to 1/4" 'mono' adapters (M-M or F-M) are common, should be able to get them anywhere, Stereo ones would work fine too.